Adaptation technologies as drivers oF social development - Climate Change Adaptation and Development: Transforming Paradigms and Practices - page 109

Water

Agriculture

Prediction and data
management

Infrastructure

Health

Energy

Coastal Zones

Ecosystems

Disaster Risk Management

Figure 6.2

Sectoral distribution of 192 priority technologies identified in 25 TNA

reports

developing countries recognize that adaptation is more than simply installing
'climate-proofed' infrastructure, but must also address underlying factors of
vulnerability.
Further, the balance between software (40 per cent of total) and orgware
(8 per cent) seems somewhat skewed. This is not necessarily a suboptimal
balance: it might simply indicate that while countries take social organization
of adaptation processes and the provision of 'institutional infrastructure'
into consideration in the TNA process, their role in adaptation is generally
seen as supportive to the functions of hardware and software, and is thus less
represented in the final list of national priority technologies. We did not find in
the literature any mention of proposed 'optimal levels' of orgware versus hard-
and software, so it is difficult to conclude that orgware is underrepresented
in the data sets. In general, however, giving low priority to orgware in the
adaptation process entails clear risks. Social organization of adaptation
processes (as opposed to individuals acting independently of each other) and
efficient, capable and responsive institutions are crucial for ensuring that the
deployment of other types of adaptation technologies (hard and soft) is both
effective and socially sustainable.
Another striking aspect concerns sectoral distribution. Figure 6.2 provides
an overview of sectoral distribution of all technologies identified in the
TNA reports examined. It should be noted, however, that each country
first identified one or more 'priority sectors' and then proceeded to identify
only technologies pertaining to that particular sector. Thus, the distribution
shown in Figure 6.2 is not the full picture of technology needs in the TNA
countries: what it shows is that most countries identified water and agriculture
among their priority sectors, which is consistent with previous findings from